


A Little Motherly Push

by rebelmeg



Series: Rebelmeg's TSB Fills 2020 [12]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Adoption, Cute Kids, F/M, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Gen, Grandchildren, Iron Family, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark Friendship, Mama Rhodes is the best
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-07
Updated: 2020-06-07
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:14:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24587416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rebelmeg/pseuds/rebelmeg
Summary: Mama Rhodes is not above a little bit of nagging and above-board manipulation to get what she wants.Written for my TSB square K1 - Riri Williams
Relationships: James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Roberta Rhodes, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Roberta Rhodes & Tony Stark
Series: Rebelmeg's TSB Fills 2020 [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1591063
Comments: 28
Kudos: 97
Collections: Tony Stark Bingo 2020





	A Little Motherly Push

**Author's Note:**

  * For [yuuki_Illene](https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuuki_Illene/gifts), [Faustess](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Faustess/gifts), [sweeetmonstrosity](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweeetmonstrosity/gifts), [kimannhart](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kimannhart/gifts).



> Approximately an age ago, Char, Faust, Rae, Joanis, and I were just spinning all kinds of hilarious ideas about Riri and Morgan shenanigans. I didn't have time to do most of it justice, but the parts with Mama Rhodes giving Rhodey grief about not giving her grandkids? That I did do!
> 
> So the credit to this fic goes entirely to those Discord darlings!

Tony smiled as he shifted the bundle in his arms to Mama Rhodes, admiring the way the elderly woman automatically fell into the perfect baby-holding position, her arms cradling newborn baby Morgan with the ease of long, long practice.

“Oh, honey, she’s perfect. Just look at her. I can already see you on that little face.”

“You think so?” Tony asked, his voice soft and his eyes softer as he watched the closest thing he had to a mother holding his baby girl.

“Yes. Pepper too.” Mama Rhodes smiled over at Pepper, who was reclining in the hospital bed and looking tired but happy. “She’s going to be stunning.”

“The blanket you made is so beautiful, Roberta.” Pepper was gently fingering the intricately crocheted blanket Mama Rhodes had brought with her for the baby. “Your talent amazes me.”

“Had to make something for my first granddaughter.” There was a mischievous sparkle in her eyes that Tony caught a glimpse of before she turned a glare on Rhodey. “At least _one_ of my sons is giving me grandchildren.”

Rhodey gaped, clearly offended, while Tony just beamed and wrapped his arm around Mama Rhodes’ shoulders. “That’s why I’m the favorite, huh?”

She patted his cheek. “Sure is, sweet pea.”

“That’s not fair!”

Mama Rhodes just raised her eyebrows at her biological son. “Neither is you holding out on me, Jimmy! Both your sisters got settled down with nice men and had some beautiful children, but you’re still roaming around like a wildcat!”

“Tony, tell her that’s not fair!” Rhodey practically wailed while Pepper laughed.

“Hush up, second favorite.” Tony replied with a wink.

Rhodey shot him a squinty-eyed glare. “Oh, it’s on.”

* * *

“Honeybear, are you looking at adoption sites?” Tony asked as he looked over Rhodey’s shoulder, startling the guy so bad he nearly dropped his laptop.

“Stop creeping up on me!” Rhodey snapped as he fumbled with the computer, hurrying to minimize the internet pages he’d been perusing.

Tony laughed as he patted his daughter's back, swaying in place as he cuddled the two-month-old. “Wow, that second favorite thing really got to you, didn’t it?”

Rhodey gave him a withering look. “No, it did not.” At Tony’s raised eyebrow, he rolled his eyes and sighed. “It didn’t. Actually… I’ve been thinking about this. For awhile now.”

“Oh yeah?” Tony sat down on the couch adjacent to him, a curious expression on his face. "Tell me more."

Before Rhodey could speak, a very loud and very rude noise emitted from Morgan's diaper. Both men glanced at her, somewhat impressed. Then Tony shrugged and leaned back comfortably, fixing his gaze back on Rhodey.

Rhodey looked right back at him, clearly trying to avoid the conversation. "Don't you have a diaper to be changing?"

Tony just grinned and didn't budge an inch. "Oh please, you know that first bum rumble is merely a warning rumble. I've got time."

There was a moment of consideration, whether or not ducking the conversation was worth the argument. But Rhodey had always confided in Tony about the important things. So he did this time too.

With a brief interruption for a diaper change, of course.

* * *

“Uncle Rhodey?” Morgan asked, her big brown eyes all wide and innocent as the three-year-old looked up at him.

He smiled and lifted her up into his lap. “Yeah, Mo?”

“When you give me cousin?”

Rhodey blinked a couple times, then recognized the same mischievous twinkle in her eye that her father had in his eyes all the time. The same twinkle that had been getting him into trouble since 1985. He sent a glance at his mother, who seemed to be a little _too_ absorbed in her conversation with Pepper. Then he looked back at Morgan.

“Gramma put you up to this, didn’t she?”

Morgan nodded, strands of brown hair falling in her face, then pulled a balled up dollar bill out of her tiny jeans pocket to show him. “She give me money.”

“Mama!” Rhodey hollered, tickling Morgan when she giggled at him. “Stop manipulating me through your granddaughter!”

To her credit, Mama Rhodes didn’t skip a beat. “Give me a grandbaby and I won’t have to!”

* * *

The little girl was absolutely adorable, with big dark eyes and a halo of tiny black ringlets around her head. They had all seen pictures, of course, and Rhodey had gushed to them almost constantly ever since he’d been able to meet her. But this would be the first time they’d be officially meeting Riri Williams (soon to be Williams-Rhodes), and the entire Stark family was _ecstatic_.

Morgan had been waiting on the porch for at least twenty minutes, pacing with all the impatience of a six-year-old as she watched for the car, and her shriek of excitement was easily heard inside when she finally spotted it.

“They’re here! Mommy, Daddy, they’re here!”

Rushing out to join their daughter, Tony and Pepper were grinning wide and waving when Rhodey pulled up next to the house, Mama Rhodes in the passenger seat, and Riri in the back. She looked at all of them shyly when Rhodey opened the door and helped her out after Mama Rhodes, then picked the little girl up and sat her on his hip, her arms wrapping around his neck. She was five and a half, only six months younger than Morgan, and a little smile spread over her face when she saw Morgan bouncing in place on the porch.

Rhodey introduced his newly adopted daughter with a soft smile on his face, and all the love in the world shining in his eyes. “Riri, this is the rest of the family. That’s my brother Tony, my sister-in-law Pepper, and my niece Morgan. She’s your cousin, and she’s been waiting a long time to meet you.”

"We all have." Pepper added, looking near tears with happiness.

Riri looked at each of them in turn, still a little timid, but she waved and smiled anyway.

“Hi, Riri! We’re so excited to meet you!” Tony had a huge grin on his face, and it was clear that he was just itching to spoil the little girl rotten. She was his very first niece, after all. “Do you wanna come in and play?”

“We’ve got a little time,” Mama Rhodes said, motioning to the car. “The chicken won’t take long to bake.”

“You didn’t have to do that,” Tony protested, but it was a token protest at best. Nothing in the world could stop Mama Rhodes from making food for her loved ones.

“How does that sound, babygirl?” Rhodey asked Riri, and after a moment of consideration, she nodded.

It took all of five minutes for Morgan to coax Riri out of her shy little shell, and then the two of them were talking and giggling and trying on princess tutus and picking out dinosaurs and teacups and race cars. Tony and Rhodey were both hovering in the doorway of the little library where Morgan had a box of toys, watching them play and looking like they longed to jump in and play themselves, while Mama Rhodes and Pepper sat on the couch and watched all four of them.

“I’m glad you finally got your grandkid.” Pepper said to Mama Rhodes with a grin. “It only took five years.”

Mama Rhodes just shook her head and smiled back. “Jimmy has wanted kids ever since he was barely old enough to understand the concept. I don’t think he ever anticipated that his career would take off the way it did, and he just didn’t have the time to settle down and get married like he’d imagined he would. I’ve seen that ache in his eyes when he plays with his nieces and nephews, he loves them all so much and he’s been wanting kids of his own desperately. He just didn’t want to admit it to himself. But I know my boy. And I knew he just needed the proper push to give in and try.”

“I’m so glad it worked out." Pepper sighed. "She’s so sweet, and you can see how much Rhodey loves her already.”

“More than life itself. Which is as it should be. Oh, there they go.”

Tony and Rhodey had clearly given in to the siren call of their daughters’ playtime, and were just sitting down on the floor with them. Morgan was quick to hand out plastic tiaras while Riri shyly scooted over the box of toys, two little dimples peeking out of her cheeks when Tony and Rhodey both thanked her profusely and put on their tiaras.

“I don’t think we’ll be having dinner on time.” Pepper chuckled, getting up to turn the heat down on the oven. “I don’t have the heart to put that to a stop.”

“No, I don’t either,” Mama Rhodes replied, watching her sons and her granddaughters with a smile on her face. “Not at all.”

The dinosaurs had just come to tea, but then chaos struck when the racecars came rampaging through. With a flick of her magic wand, Princess Morgan declared that the racecars had to go away immediately, and shame on them for interrupting tea. Princess Riri supervised the retreat of the racecars with help from Prince Papa, and Prince Daddy was quick to distribute justice by dumping them into the toy box. He jostled the little half-size card table with his knee, causing an earthquake, and the dinosaurs had to rescue the treasure (a pile of plastic jewelry and Legos) and escape to a cave (under the rocking chair).

By the time the dinosaurs had set up a colony with the Polly Pockets and made tents to sleep in out of the storybooks standing on their ends, dinner was well past ready and the princesses and the princes had to go to the table. As Princess Riri took her Papa’s hand and looked up at him, she was smiling.

And they all lived happily ever after.


End file.
